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Turkey on defence spending spree during Afrin op

Turkey held an important round of defence procurement after launching its operation in Afrin, Burak Bekdil wrote for Defense News.

“Turkey’s top defense procurement panel on Jan. 31 discussed and reviewed a total of 55 programs totaling $9.4 billion,” he wrote.

Among the decisions made by the panel, which was chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself as the first meeting since it was placed under the control of the presidency, was to replace two utility helicopters that had crashed, Bekdil said.

“The SSM official said that SSIK also decided to award a contract to FNSS, an Ankara-based, privately owned armored vehicles manufacturer, for the acquisition of 170 eight-wheel drive tactical armored combat vehicles,” he wrote.

“SSIK also decided to open contract negotiations with another armored vehicles manufacturer, BMC, for the purchase of a batch of 700 four-wheel drive vehicles.”

Turkey’s new order for armoured vehicles totalled around $400 million, Bekdil said.

Plus, the government is considering the bids of three Turkish arms manufacturers for the contract to produce 250 of the country’s first indigenous tank, he said.